To the Grave
by The Strange One
Summary: Ginny Weasley decides to capture Tom Riddle in the ultimate and final form.


Disclaimer: Ginny, Tom, and Hogwarts are Rowling's. The rest is mine.  
  
Note: This is mostly the reflections of a girl but there is suicide involved hence the PG-13 rating. Read Bryant and got a little inspiration.  
  
  
  
To the Grave  
  
  
  
The Earth is different now. No moist womb to lay the seeds of life in, no natural spring to let your hair dance among the creatures whose nautical existence allows them a separate peace from this world. There is no sun to behold all. The sky is no longer open, it is dark and closed; a black bubble around the world where only one side of love is conveyed, the side that her mother never mentioned during bedtime tales.  
  
This place is not real. The stone that is tread upon is an illusion. The studded roofs, the oily lake, the drapes and blankets, the goblets and plates, the brooms and wands, the books and quills, the willows and flowers, the diary. It was all just another game. Another lesson he was teaching her. He sought to create a monster and almost succeeded. He would whisper to her in the breathless darkness that enveloped them at night. Sang promises of happiness and stroked the infant in her that longed for the dreams that may come. He stirred in her a longing so glorious and he waited so long to feed her.  
  
He never fed her at all. He sank into the depths of air and left her. And there she was, salivating with a ravenous need to embrace the gifts he swore to deliver if she surrendered her soul. He petted her and swayed her into his arms, he showed her the world and took it away just as quickly. He had turned her into animal, relinquished her leash, and sent her bolting out into that imaginary world where she would ravage anyone and have anything she wanted.  
  
Her parents had taught her that she could be anything she wanted to be. They never told her that it was at a price. A sacrifice had to be made, that is why she was in the Astronomy Tower, shivering in the same white gown she wore when his lovely voice would coax her into the latest task at hand. She wanted one thing and one thing only, him.  
  
She stepped on the stone ledge of the window. Her breath hit the glass that had been magically conjured to prevent any accidents that might happen. Her finger traced a single line down the translucent puddle of warmth she had made on the window. It was so much like life now; there was the world of opportunity that could be seen and only a barrier that could be touched.  
  
Barriers were built to be torn down. She didn't have to force the window open, a small push and then the tempestuous wind did the rest. In fact, it was so rough that the window had swung to the side of the stone castle and it shattered with a delightfully musical sound to the unknown, like sharp and deadly teardrops. Her crimson hair and white fabric was pulled into the sky, they wanted to leave and were beckoning her to come join them for a fanciful night of play. She closed her eyes. The air, the air he disappeared into was swirling all around her. She could taste him.  
  
She grasped the sides of the window with her small child hands, knuckles white. Nervously, her foot lifted slightly upward and then out, parallel to the world below. Tingles ran like toddlers up and down her leg. How magnificent this was going to feel! She set her foot back on the safety of the ledge and her eyes caught sparkling light. It was the shards of glass mocking the moon from it's new home on the ground.  
  
The ground. Oh, how sweet and forgiving the ground was! It was the sepulcher of all things. Villains and heroes would meet at last in the ground. The mighty castle and the poverty-stricken shack had the same foundation on the ground. Even the flawless rose and the pestering weed shared the same breeding arena. The ground. Yes, he stole away into the night air her first year. But all that goes up must come down. If anyone could miss man's destiny, it was he. But he wouldn't. He would fall to the same resting place of all that breathe.  
  
He may not be there when she joined the ground but eventually. Eventually, inevitably, Thanatopsis would knock on his front door to collect his due and he will come. It may be in an hour or another decade, it did not matter. The Earth had changed and time no longer existed. All that matters is she would join him, meet him, become one with him. She could almost see his face when she closed his eyes. Soon his body would be lowered into the ground beside her, she could see it now! It would all be so perfect.  
  
She let go of the sides of the castle and shut her eyes, a smile etched on her lips. "Yes, Tom, you will not escape me a second time." And she took a step onto the staircase of the heavens. 


End file.
